Actor and television star Stephen Fry considered becoming an MP, a new book will reveal.

The national treasure, who lives in Norfolk, hinted in a November 1991 letter to the then Labour leader, Neil Kinnock, that he wanted to swap the television green room for the green benches of the House of Commons.

He wrote: "Jesus, Britain needs you at Downing Street.

"I'm in Norfolk, writing after Christmas, so two things a) if you're ever in the area, it goes without saying...b) when things start hotting up in the hustings and you feel like some faxes to ignore or line your waste-paper bins with, I'm absolutely at your service as I've told the Johns Eatwell and Newbiggin.

"If I can be of any help on the trail I'll do what I can, natch.

"I'm glad we talked about what you think of 'celeb' appearances. If something occurs which will require a good use of a face then, given a fair following wind, I am at the party's service.

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"Looking ahead to your second premiership, I am seriously considering the possibility that you may well have me behind you on the government benches in 1995/6 and giving your Whips headaches."

The previously unseen letter was discovered in Cambridge's Churchill Archives Centre by Dr Richard Carr, senior lecturer in history and politics at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU).

It will feature in his new book March of the Moderates: Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, and the Rebirth of Progressive Politics, which is published on September 5.

Dr Carr said: "Stephen Fry is a national treasure. Perhaps he wasn't being totally serious when writing to Kinnock, but he'd have been an asset to the commons. If Boris has gone from Fleet Street to Downing Street, who knows how far Fry could have risen?"

The book is a strong historical defence of New Labour and the New Democrats.

It sheds new light on the relationship between Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, and unearths new information on figures such as Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and David Miliband.

Mr Fry appeared in a November 1993 party political broadcast for the Labour Party.

Mr Kinnock lost the 1992 General Election and after that Mr Fry fell out of love with New Labour, refusing to back them in the 2005 General Election.